Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Oceans reveal further impacts of climate change

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The increasing acidity of the world’s oceans – and that acidity’s growing threat to marine species – are definitive proof that the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is causing climate change is also negatively affecting the marine environment, says world-renowned Antarctic marine biologist Jim McClintock, Ph.D., professor in the University of Alabama at […]

Colorado Springs cuts basic services

By Michael BoothThe Denver PostPosted: 01/31/2010 01:00:00 AM MSTUpdated: 02/03/2010 04:39:29 PM MST COLORADO SPRINGS — This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric. More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark […]

Most of Britain's ponds in a 'terrible state'

Eight out of 10 ponds in Britain are in a ‘terrible state’, according to the first national pond survey in the world. By Louise Gray, Environment CorrespondentPublished: 1:39PM GMT 04 Feb 2010 The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology measured animal life and water quality in half a million ponds across the country, from tarns in […]

Extinct: last of the Great Andaman tribe dies

  Boa Sr, the last speaker of ‘Bo’, one of the ten Great Andamanese languages, died last week, according to an indigenous rights group. She was 85. Her death marks the extinction of the Bo, a group thought to have lived on the Andaman Islands for as long as 65,000 years, “making them the descendants […]

Despite cool temperatures, Arctic sea ice extent remains low

Despite cool temperatures over most of the Arctic Ocean in January, Arctic sea ice extent continued to track below normal. By the end of January, ice extent dropped below the extent observed in January 2007. Ice extent was unusually low in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic, the one major area of the Arctic where […]

Storm runoff and sewage treatment outflow contaminated with household pesticides

ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2010) — Pyrethroids, among the most widely-used home pesticides, are winding up in California rivers at levels toxic to some stream-dwellers, possibly endangering the food supply of fish and other aquatic animals, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Southern Illinois University (SIU). Pyrethroid insecticides, […]

Officials fear another whooping crane die-off

Associated PressJan. 27, 2010, 5:58AM The world’s last remaining natural flock of endangered whooping cranes, which suffered a record number of deaths last year, will probably see another die-off because of scarce food supplies at its Texas nesting grounds this winter, wildlife managers said. The flock lost 23 birds in the 2008-2009 winter season, in […]

Bottom trawling threatens blobfish with extinction

The world’s most miserable-looking fish is in danger of becoming extinct, according to scientists. By Andrew HoughPublished: 7:30AM GMT 26 Jan 2010 Scientists fear the blobfish, which can grow up to 12 inches, is in danger of being wiped out by over-fishing in its south eastern Australian habitat. The fish, which lives at depths of […]

Brazil grants environmental license for Amazon hydroelectric dam

By Gary DuffyBBC News, Sao Paulo Brazil’s government has granted an environmental licence for the construction of a controversial hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest. Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam will cause devastation in a large area of the rainforest and threaten the survival of indigenous groups. However, the government says whoever is […]

January was the warmest on record for the Seattle area

By Susan Gilmore, Seattle Times staff reporter It wasn’t sunbathing weather, but January was the warmest on record for the Seattle area, according to the National Weather Service. The average temperature was 47 degrees, above the average of 45.8 degrees and the highest temperature since they began being recorded at the Seattle Federal Building in […]

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